In what will probably go down in history as one of the biggest blunders of the 2020's, Prime Trust has revealed in court bankruptcy filings that it accidentally lost access to over $38 million in crypto.
In the filing, Prime Trust unveils a series of extremely unfortunate steps which resulted in the loss of all access to "Wallet 98f", including the loss of access to the hardware wallet as well as backup seed phrases.
According to court filings, "The Company used a seed storage system provided by 'Cryptosteel' (the 'Cryptosteel Hardware' and, together with the Hardware Devices, the 'Wallet Access Devices'), which allows physical storage of a copy of the seed phrases on extremely durable hardware. This provides a method of storing seed phrases that is generally believed to be safer than storing seed phrases on paper hard copy, images, or pictures." In other words, they laser engraved the seed phrases onto a piece of metal, because apparently that's somehow safer, and surely nobody is going to throw away a random piece of metal they find that looks like a bunch of jibberish and was probably just somebody testing out their laser engraver.
Apparently Wallet 98f was a "legacy" wallet which wasn't supposed to be used anymore, but was still being used for customer deposits. As such, it's highly likely that Prime Trust probably discarded the "Wallet Access Devices" when they thought they were no longer needed. Because that would probably be in line with how the rest of this has played out.
So, it's possible that somewhere in a Nevada landfill, is a piece of metal with a bunch of jibberish words engraved on it, worth $38 million.
For reference, here's a photo of one of these devices, from the court filings.
So, who wants to join me in a treasure hunt in Nevada? All we need to do is identify which landfill these seed keys went to, and start digging! Rumor has it, American Pickers are already on their way.
Ken is a cybersecurity professional with over 15 years experience. All opinions are his own, and do not reflect those of his employer or his clients.
